KRISTA O’HALPIN

Beautiful Bodies, Krista O’Halpin. Linocut stamps, organic cotton bandana and fabric ink. 24 x 24 in., 2022.

The day Roe vs. Wade was overturned I felt immense numbness. I moved away from my home state of Georgia almost a decade ago, and know the protection for women there was far from ideal before this happened. While this decision by our government makes it more difficult for me and my own family to plan what is right for us; it is now impossible for them to do so.
That night I thought about all the different women in my life, each with their own unique story and life that would now be changed. I drew those women out, and then I carved a 9 x 12" linoleum stamp with all the anger and sadness I felt that day.
The text on the work is inspired by Barbara Kreuger's work in the 80s.
Her works like "your body is a battleground" hit so close to home, so I also wrote "my", "body", and "choice" in Futura Bold and also carved them. Every word you see is the result of a single hand-printed word with the force of disappointment and anger.

Krista O'Halpin is a multidisciplined artist from Georgia, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communication from Savanah College of Art and Design. Never quite feeling like that was the place for her, she made a sudden move to Seattle, Wa, in 2015. One day, in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, she began to feel an understanding between the priceless beauty of nature and its unpredictable peculiarity. This is what motivated her to create Strange in Nature and pursue the oddities of her style while also focusing on sustainability & connectivity in order to create a world where "We can all feel good about being strange".

Krista's distinctive personal style is often described as bold and dark while expressing a playful, but sassy spirit. Inspiration for her work comes from her own mental health struggles, love for nature, & the human connection. With the goal of expressing empathy and things often too large for words, Krista uses various mediums & methods such as printmaking, painting, design, embroidery, and photography.